Carpio, Micah Alexa M.

BSMA 2-2

Short Summary

Before answering the following questions, I would like to give a short summary about the said
case. Hazel was a former employee of Fortune 500 Company, after being kicked out from her job, she
started finding a new work for her living. Unfortunately, in a long span of time, she could not find one.
That is the time she decided to make and run her own business, inspired by the lawn mowing ideas from
her neighborhood.

Questions:

1.)
A. As the Operations Manager of the business, Hazel is responsible to forecast, predict or
calculate the future event that is usually resulted from the study and analysis given from the
past transactions or events. These are the following:
i. Inventory: Equipment and supplies used for mowing of lawn, fertilizing, weeding
gardens, trimming shrubbery
ii. Increase in demand (can affect how many employees are needed)
iii. Number of machines to be ordered
iv. Positions or deployment of assistants
v. Prevailing rates (charged in the market by lawn-movers)
vi. Potential threat from competitors
B. Hazel would require inventory for her business. These are the following:
i. Lawn mowing equipment: Lawn mowers, oil, motor
ii. Gardening equipment: Plants, fertilizers, grass seeds, trimmers, edger,
sprinklers, hand tools, rakes, gloves, leaf blower)
iii. Fertilizers and manure might need to be ordered periodically as per the demand
in the business.
C. Hazel has to have a scheduling of the appointments with her customers. The scheduling will
be done on the basis of the following factors:
i. Availability of her assistants as well as her customers
ii. Matching of a client’s schedule with other clients
iii. When to order the supplies and when they will come in
iv. No demand on the days which are kept off
D. The factors that will disrupt her scheduling:
i. Lack of supplies and equipment
ii. Not enough stock, workers, or funds
iii. Natural Disasters: Storms, hurricanes, drought, thunderstorms
iv. Cancelling of appointment by her clients
v. Breaking down of the mowing machine
E. It is very important to have quality assurance in Hazel’s business. Customers want to make
sure that the lawns are mowed properly and the shrubs are trimmed well, as well as good
quality fertilizers in their lawns. Since at the end of the day, customers are the ones signing
the paychecks. So it is better to give them the best quality.
 F. The maintenance tasks to be performed by Hazel are the following:
i. Maintain the lawn mowing machine
ii. Keep the equipment in good condition as always
iii. Consistency of the quality of the service to provide in each customer
iv. Delivery of time as what it was agreed upon should be strictly observed

2.) In what ways are Hazel’s customers most likely to judge the quality of her lawn care services?

A. The period of time the staff can finish the job.

B. Quality of the work performed
C. Customer check-up (regularly checking on the finished work for several days or weeks)
D. Availability of the service
E. The kind or type of fertilizer to be used
F. Prior experience that the workers have

3.) What are some of the trade-offs that Hazel probably considered relative to:
A. Working for a Co instead of herself
i. Working in a company is more stable since companies have the broader scope
in terms of businesses
ii. Lawn Care is not really needed during winter, due to this situation, Hazel’s
business will have a downside and it may give her a hard time to handle that
kind of problem.
iii. Working as an employee has also some advantages specifically in terms of
benefits received from their respective employer
B. Expanding the business
i. Expanding the business leads to more clients, since service will be available
to a more group of people living in different areas or location.
ii. More profits, since business will expand and a lot more customers can avail
the service
iii. More expenses as well, since expanding business is costly, but they may
have to increase prices to cover their expenses.
C. Launching a website?
i. Launching a website makes it easy to share and connect to people, by this
means, more people will learn about the said business and will be able to
review the quality of service the business provides.

4.) The town is considering an ordinance that would prohibit putting grass clipping at the curb for
pickup because local landfills cannot handle the volume. What options might hazel consider if
the ordinance is passed? Name two advantages and two drawbacks of each option.
A. Grass cycling: It is the natural recycling of grass by leaving clippings on the lawn
when mowing.
i. Advantages:
• Lawn will be healthier because of the nutrients such as nitrogen,
phosphorus, and potassium returning to the soil
 • It will save expenses time and energy
ii. Disadvantages
• Creates less need for fertilizer that will result in decreasing Hazel’s profit
• Decrease in demand means decrease in labor needed
B. Xeriscaping: It is the process of gardening that reduces or eliminates the need for
supplemental water from irrigation.
i. Advantages
• Uses very little water and is largely drought-tolerant
• Reduces trimming waste amount
ii. Disadvantages;
• It can be expensive to install
• Less trimming creates less demand for her lawn moving services
5.) Hazel decided to offer the students who worked for a bonus of $25 for ideas on how to improve
the business and they provided several good ideas. One idea that she initially rejected now
appears to hold great promise. The student who proposed the idea has left and currently
working for a competitor. Should Hazel send that student a check for the idea? What are the
possible trade-offs?
• Unfortunately, Hazel made the wrong decision in the first place although it
was not her intention because of the unforeseen circumstances. If there are
no risks associated with checking that student's idea, I guess, finding it out is
worth a try. Considering ethical principles including the consent of the
competitor and the willingness of the student. Accordingly, possible trade-
offs could occur in the sense that without knowing the idea might pose as a
challenge for Hazel to do better for her business and could even surpass or
destroy that idea with her own. Furthermore, if she chooses to check the
student's idea, it would make her incur additional costs and might pose a
problem knowing that her competitor has already worked it out.

6.) All managers have to cope with variation.

A. What are the major sources of variation that Hazel has to contend with?
• Since it is a lawn care business, this normally experiences variations with
regards to inputs in productivity, quality assurance, wages, and even with
the seasons. It is really difficult for Hazel to achieve uniform inputs in
providing services since it varies in different customers depending on the
area of their lawns. Like many service type businesses, it is highly difficult to
measure productivity and the appropriate compensation.
B. How might these sources of variation impact Hazel’s ability to match supply and demand?
• The variations presented on the previous question affect Hazel's ability to
match supply and demand since as stated, inputs may be less than or more
than adequate to meet the desired outcome. There will be times when
supply is not enough to meet the customer's demand, resulting to miss
opportunities or to incur unwanted costs.
C. What are some ways she can cope with variation?
 • Before designing strategies, Hazel must first conduct careful study and
analysis as to causes, nature, correlation, and effect of these variations. She
should be able to identify the significant variables that give large impact on
her business as a whole. Until then, she can create new ideas and develop
coping strategies in order to manage the existing variations. She could
resort to imposing certain criteria and standards that maintain balance
between inputs and outputs, hence, matching supply with demand. This
way she can ensure an efficient and effective operation of her start-up
business.
7.) Hazel is thinking of making some of her operations sustainable. What are some ideas she might
consider?
i. Innovations that maximize profit and reduce costs
ii. Offering a wider range of services
iii. Reaching new groups of customers
iv. Improving the service quality based on insights from past customers
v. Investing on high quality tools and equipment

Credits to: Academia Website